By Vladimir Brezina
Yesterday I got up early to go kayaking with NYC Swim‘s Ederle Swim. It was dark and cold. Why do these swims always begin so early? (Don’t tell me: time and tide wait for no man…)
But there was an unexpected bonus: a prime view of a spectacular dawn and sunrise over New York Harbor, from the motorboat that transported us from Manhattan to Sandy Hook, NJ, for the start of the swim. A few photos:
Posted in Nature, New York City
Tagged Dawn, New York City, New York Harbor, Photography, Sunrise
By Vladimir Brezina
On Sunday, Johna and I went kayaking. As usual, we looked up the tidal currents and went where the currents would take us that day. That turned out to be Sandy Hook, NJ.
The trip from Manhattan to Sandy Hook and back is one of our favorite trips. We do it often. It’s a full day’s trip but, with favorable current both ways, not overly strenuous: about three hours there and four hours back, with plenty of time between for lunch. I will give details of how to plan the trip so as to use the currents to best advantage in a future post. But in the meantime, here are some photographic highlights of Sunday’s trip.
Posted in Kayaking, New York City
Tagged Kayaking, New York City, New York Harbor, Photography, Sandy Hook
By Vladimir Brezina
The September Equinox occurred today, September 23, 2011, at 09:04 UTC, or 5:04 a.m. in New York City. And with it, the first day of Fall!
“Autumn in New York
Why does it seem so inviting?
…
It’s autumn in New York
It’s good to live it again.”
To celebrate and anticipate the joys of fall, here is a gallery of fall foliage photos that I took in NYC’s Central Park last year on one spectacularly beautiful day, October 28 (late in the year for peak foliage color, it might seem, but not so in NYC’s urban heat island).
Posted in Nature, New York City
Tagged Autumn, Fall, Fall Equinox, Fall Foliage Colors, New York City, Photography
By Vladimir Brezina
“The … most prominent landmarks, which can be seen for a long distance at sea, are the twin towers of the World Trade Center …”
.
The individual photos are here.
Posted in Kayaking, New York City
Tagged 9/11, Kayaking, New York City, New York Harbor, Twin Towers, World Trade Center
By Vladimir Brezina
These tropical storms have certainly stirred things up! Hurricane Irene came through ten days ago and deluged the entire region, and a couple of days ago Tropical Storm Lee repeated the performance. This morning, looking out of the window on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, we saw a strange sight in Hell Gate…
By Vladimir Brezina
NYC Swim‘s premier long-distance swim, the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, has become an institution in the world of long-distance swimming. But its younger sibling, the Ederle Swim between Manhattan and Sandy Hook, New Jersey, is still growing, full of surprising twists and turns.
In October 2010, the top two finishers in the Ederle Swim were Lance Ogren and Liz Fry. This year, each of them went on to swim their own exclusive version of the Ederle Swim. In June 2011, Liz completed an unprecedented 35-mile double Ederle Swim from Manhattan to Sandy Hook and back. In an amazing swim, she set records not only for the overall course but for each of the two individual directions as well.
A few days ago, in August 2011, Lance set out to break the record—now Liz’s record—for the Manhattan to Sandy Hook direction.
I was one of the two kayakers accompanying Lance on his swim. Here are some photos and a brief account.
Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Sports
Tagged Ederle Swim, Hurricane Irene, Kayaking, Long-Distance Swim, Manhattan, New York City, New York Harbor, NYC Swim, Open-Water Swim, Sandy Hook
By Vladimir Brezina
I thought we had a few more months until the end of the world…
But this week we’ve seen a scenario unfold that is straight out of a Hollywood end-of-the-world movie. After Tuesday’s earthquake, we now have Hurricane Irene bearing down upon us. It seems determined to devastate the entire East Coast of the United States. Millions of people are fleeing for their lives, entire cities are grinding to a halt, awaiting the deluge…
Posted in Nature, New York City
Tagged Flood, Hurricane, Hurricane Irene, Natural Disaster, New York City, Satellite Images, Storm Prediction
By Vladimir Brezina
When people say incredulously “OMG, you kayak in THAT water? And you just went all the way around Manhattan??”, I often reply, “People SWIM in that water… all the way around Manhattan!!”
(Clearly, I might have to rethink this reply, although not the sentiment, after this summer’s sewage disaster…)
Each year, NYC Swim puts thousands of swimmers into that water for a series of short and longer swims in New York City’s waterways. Their premier event each summer is the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (MIMS), a 28.5-mile race around Manhattan. Along with the English Channel and Catalina Channel swims, it is one of the three swims in the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming.
The Lone Starlettes scoping out the Battery from the land side beforehand: (left to right) Pam LeBlanc, Katy Dooley, Leslie Blanke, Gretchen Sanders
In this year’s MIMS, on June 18, 2011, I was the kayaker for a relay team, the Lone Starlettes (no prizes for guessing which state they are from 
): Katy Dooley, Gretchen Sanders, Pam LeBlanc, and Leslie Blanke. Here’s how it went…
By Vladimir Brezina
Now that Johna and I are back from our New England kayaking trip (photos here, writeup still to come), it’s back to my regular old paddling routine in New York Harbor.
Here’s an account of one of my standard trips, written up a long time ago for the September/October 2003 issue of ANorAK, the Journal of the Association of North Atlantic Kayakers (a journal now defunct). Rereading this account, I see that things haven’t changed much over the past decade. There’s mention of sewage, for instance…
In essence, the trip is a 50-nautical-mile circumnavigation of Manhattan with a side excursion into Long Island Sound, looping around City and Hart Islands. I developed this trip for those days when the timing of the tidal currents is such that the East River starts flooding in the early morning, just as I am launching from Pier 40 in lower Manhattan. Following the flood current up the East River soon gets me to Hell Gate, where I am faced with the choice of paddling against the current then coming down the Harlem River, or continuing with the current through Hell Gate into the Upper East River and out into Long Island Sound. Being lazy, of course I choose the second option, returning to Hell Gate to resume the Manhattan circumnavigation only when the current has turned so that it will push me up the Harlem River. (As a bonus, I get to paddle through Hell Gate both ways at the peak of the current, sometimes boiling along at five or six knots, which can be interesting…)
Posted in Kayaking, New York City
Tagged East River, Harlem River, Hell Gate, Hudson River, Kayaking, Long Island Sound, Manhattan, New York City, New York Harbor
By Vladimir Brezina
I love lighthouses! There are quite a few in New York Harbor and the surrounding waterways. And over the years that I’ve spent kayaking in the area, I’ve collected photos of many of them. See if you can identify the lighthouses in the following photos! All are within the borders of New York City or just beyond.
Correct answers will receive contributions toward the purchase of your very own lighthouse! Many lighthouses around the country are now available from the government at very reasonable terms. In New York Harbor itself, West Bank Light and Old Orchard Shoal Light are unfortunately already gone, sold for $195,000 and $95,000 respectively—it will be interesting to see what the purchasers do with them. But Romer Shoal Light and Great Beds Light may still be available…
Update (August 12, 2011): Answers provided.
Posted in Kayaking, New York City
Tagged Hudson River, Kayaking, Lighthouse, Long Island Sound, New York City, New York Harbor
... kayaked the waters around New York for more than 15 years in his red Feathercraft folding kayak. He was originally from (the former) Czechoslovakia and lived in the U.K. and California before settling down in New York. He was a neuroscientist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He died in 2016.
... is a kayaker and technology researcher at Nemertes Research. She's an erstwhile engineer, particle physicist, and science fiction writer. She was born in California and has lived in Italy, Norway, Hawaii, and a few other places. She currently resides in New York City.
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Wind Against Current 